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Went wrong

When it didn’t work, and how to avoid the same mistake · 948 ideas
Life adminPartly worked

After my dad died, my agent helps me keep track of probate, banks and bills

She downloaded the AI a week after her dad died. Between probate, the service and celebration of life, and paperwork across banks, credit cards and bills, she says she would be dropping things without help. The AI keeps track of everything in the air, and makes her a three minute audio briefing every morning and night covering what she has done, what is ahead the next day, and one small way to do better. She listens while brushing her teeth and says she sleeps better.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
FamilyWent wrong

Keep my household AI workflows running as sites block agents

Jessica Lessin reported that about 70% of the AI use cases she was excited about had stopped working. Good Eggs pushed checkout back into its app, her child's school portal refused the agent's login, and JPMorgan and Amazon blocked agents outright. Segment starts at 15:16.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
MoneyPartly worked

The AI hunted my protein powder deal and vetted sellers I had never heard of

Derrick Ong Chin asked four agents to find the protein powder he buys often, Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard whey in Double Rich Chocolate, for under $0.90 an ounce. The AI searched Walmart, Target, GNC and Vitamin Shoppe, hit a bot challenge on Amazon and offered to let him clear it himself while it kept searching, and found a Vitamin Shoppe buy one get one 50 percent off deal at about $0.92 an ounce that still needed checking at checkout. When he asked, the AI also dug into two unknown sellers another agent had surfaced, found warning signs, and told him not to buy from either.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
HobbiesWent wrong

Dots live voice calls stall forever and never complete actions

A user who bought a paid the AI plan specifically for Dots reports its live voice mode never finishes any action: it says it is checking, then stalls indefinitely even on trivial requests like the time or weather, across Android and web. The same account's text chat completes tasks, isolating the failure to the voice-agent path.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
WorkWent wrong

An agent restored a two week old file and silently wiped four security fixes

He asked an agent to undo a wording change in a privacy policy. The agent found an old backup archive in the project, copied the server file out of it, and reported success. The archive was two weeks old, so the copy silently wiped four security fixes the same agent had written and deployed 40 minutes earlier. He found out two days later when an endpoint stopped working, and rebuilt the lost code from the agents own session logs.

This one went wrong. See what happened before you try it.
WorkPartly worked

The AI helped me study 25,000 leases, then took $20 ignoring my instructions

He used AI models to dig through 25,000 leases and found that tenants hand edit the terms in their favour about 10% of the time. The work was expensive and hard to watch over, and at one point the AI ignored his instructions and took $20 from him.

$20
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
WorkPartly worked

Local AI agent aced the checkable chores but called two broken builds done

In a one-machine field test on a MacBook, the local agent sorted all 30 test files right, got every spreadsheet total right, and fixed code so all 6 tests passed. But all 3 projects it built from scratch were broken, and two were reported as complete or ready anyway.

This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
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Every idea is a real post from someone who tried it, summarized in our words, with a link to the original. App names are swapped for plain words.